Mike Fine: Schilling handles Rockies with ease this time around

Friday

Oct 26, 2007 at 12:01 AMOct 26, 2007 at 7:50 PM

As Curt Schilling walked off the mound with one out and two on in the sixth inning, as he heard the roaring sound of the rising ovation, he looked around, saw 36,730 people standing, waved his cap and looked like he wanted to cry.

Mike Fine

He wasn't just wearing his emotions on his sleeve; they were also on his face, plain as day.

As Curt Schilling walked off the mound with one out and two on in the sixth inning, as he heard the roaring sound of the rising ovation, he looked around, saw 36,730 people standing, waved his cap and looked like he wanted to cry.

If this was how he was going out, he was doing it with determined professionalism, willing his aging arm to go 5 1/3 innings, giving up four hits and just one first-inning run to enable the Red Sox to go on to a 2-1 World Series Game 2 victory over the Colorado Rockies at Fenway Park.

Schilling could conceivably come back to Fenway for a Game 6 start, but the Red Sox are up, 2-0, in the Series, and we all know that they're not capable of losing three straight playoff games, so this could be it.

Four years of Curt in the car, Curt the media basher, Curt the oracle, Curt the wag, Curt the philanthropist and Curt the know-it-all could be coming to an end.

Mostly, though, his legacy will be of the bloody sock in 2004, of great performances, guts, desire, guile, overwhelming loyalty to his teammates and wicked good competence that helped the Sox win one world championship and has them on the verge of another. The Red Sox didn't win a title for 86 years, and Schilling could be here for two of them.

Against the Rockies, who knocked him around for nine hits and six runs in five innings during their June visit to Fenway, he was a stopper this time around, giving up a single first-inning run after he hit leadoff batter Willie Taveras and going onto shut 'em down.

"I was better," he said. "I mean, going back to that first game, which I watched a couple of times, horrible execution, and at that point I think I was at the tail end of being able to pitch. Physically, I was struggling."

Not so now. Schilling is now 4-1 lifetime in the World Series, 11-2 overall in the playoffs. He's 3-0, 3.00 this postseason, and this effort helped the Sox win their sixth straight World Series game as they flew to Denver and Saturday's Game 3 at Coors Field.

"It's his will to make sure the score ends up in our favor," said Sox manager Terry Francona. "I've been around him for so long (starting in Philadelphia) that I guess I expect unfair things out of him. It's a good feeling when he pitches. Whatever the situation, you know he's going to be prepared for it.

"He is a little bit of a different pitcher, but tonight he located his fastball, threw a split, threw enough off-speed pitches to get him off the fastball..." Yeah, we all know the Schilling drill when he's going this good.

The difference this time is that he walked off a winner, knowing it could be the last time, even if he didn't want to admit it.

"I don't have any (thoughts), I really don't," he said. "I guarantee everybody is as sick of hearing of it as I am. It seems like for the last four or five games everyone is asking if this could be, this could be.

“Whatever happens is going to happen. Y'know, I have faith in God that it's all going to work out the way it's supposed to work out.”

Schilling signed a three-year, $37.5 million contract in November 2003, with a 2007 $13 million option vested with the winning of the '04 World Series -- a clause that has since been deemed illegal by Major League Baseball.

The Sox refused to negotiate with him prior to this season, preferring to see how he made out during the '07 campaign when he went 9-8, 3.87 after missing more than a month to rest a tired shoulder.

They're not discussing his status at this stage, of course, but it's likely that length of contract and, of course, price, could be an issue.

His playoff record will certainly work in his favor, but it's unlikely that the Sox would want to be paying big bucks for the long term, which would likely spell the end of days for him in Boston.

He's no longer a No. 1 starter now that his pitching style has changed, but he proved this season that when the going gets tough, the tough get going, even if he is just the second pitcher older than 40 (Kenny Rogers) to start and win a World Series game. Combine that with Wednesday's 13-1 opener, in which Josh Beckett stifled the Rockies, and the Sox are in great shape.

"We scored two runs in 18 innings in this ballpark," said Rockies manager Clint Hurdle. "That makes it tough to win. Schilling's ... a competitor. He got the better of us."

As Schilling walked off the field, reliever Mike Timlin couldn't help but think he was seeing the man's swan song. "Yeah, I did, because it could be my last time, too. He ain't alone."